Talk to me about Prepaid Cell Phones...

[PineBurrowPeeps]

If you have a prepay cell phone could you please tell me who the provider is, how long you've been with them, and if you have any complaints?

I am looking to get a prepay cell with texting. I have looked at T-mobil who has the Sidekick with a prepay plan for texters, and Verizon who has a texting bundle for $10 a month unlimted texts to other Verizon phones.
My Best Friend has verizon wireless so that would work for me.

 

[birdsofparadise]

Iʻve had both. I buy them for my daughter when she takes long trips with her sports teams and is likely to lose her regular cell phone. They both work, although I think Verizon has a better network. The problem is the pre-paid part of it. Its difficult to determine how many units you have used and when you are going to run out. Plus, then you have to have a credit card handy to re-fill it.

All in all, a regular cell with a nominal plan (ie: 200 minutes per month) would only cost about $29 in most markets, the phone is included, and youʻll find that once you start using a cell, you will rely on it.

And donʻt forget, unless they are in your plan or another Verizon user, you will be charged for any in-coming minutes also. My nephew didnʻt know that, handed out his number to his buddies who called him constantly and he thought he was safe since HE didnʻt place the call. No, no!!! He got a $400 bill that first month, tried to cancel, got hit with an early cancellation charge of $250, couldnʻt pay it, got sued and the whole fiasco cost him over a $1000 after court costs and interest.

So read the contract carefully.

 

[debilorrah]

One of my co-workers has the Verizon one and she loves it because she texts alot. I have regular cell service with Verizon and would never consider changing.

 

[EweSheep]

Id rather get one without a contract, prepaid and roll over minutes for texting....I am hearing impaired and I have NOT yet found a cell phone that would work for me and my handicap. So we still got landline phone and TDD devices (now not working) in our household.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I had a plan phone with T-Mobil for a long time but here's the problem:
My mother, husband, and I all had phones with T-mobil and had a family plan. We payed my mom every month because my husband's credit isn't all that great and I have none. It came to the point where we were paying for Mom's phone and the bill was hovering around $180 a month for the three phones on a 1000 minute plan and unlimited texting.
We warned her that we couldn't afford to pay the whole bill anymore and I have anxiety disorder pretty badly and DEPENDED on my phone alot. I couldn't even take my dog out to the bathroom without having my cell phone in hand. It was my life line.

Well she refused to help pay the bill so I was forced to stop paying her alltogether. Phones got shut off and now she's been slapped with over $600 in early termination fees.

My husband can live without a cell phone but I need one again. So I am looking at prepays. My Best Friend and I mainly talk via IMing and Text and without a phone we haven't been talking much. I miss her alot. She already has Verizon for a cell provider so the Verizon prepay text bundle would work for me. I am just nervous about it because I have never had a prepay phone before. I don't quite know how it works. I don't have a credit card so is this the type of thing that I can pay cash with at a pay place or do I need a credit card?

 

[ams3651]

I dont know about text service but it seems all the kids have Verizon. I had At&t prepaid, buying the cards and it was very reliable, no problems, I had it for about 8 years. I needed a better deal so I went with Net10. The ONLY thing i like about them is the 10 cents a minute, and I do have decent sevice. Their customer service is HORRENDOUS. I cant even begin to go into the month long fiasco they caused when I got a replacement phone for one that broke in warranty. All they had to do was switch my account to the new phone. Ended up clearing it up with their corporate office.

Most of them have cards you can buy at any place like Walmart or with Verizon or Cingular you can go in and pay.

 

[debilorrah]

Every time I read one of these stories about how parents treat their adult children I am shocked.

Jenna! Go with the Verizon package since your best friend already has it. I would die without my cell phone.....

 

[Guinea Goonie]

I bought mine at "dollar general" for 30 bucks. It came with 300 minutes, was easy to get going and they gave me a local number. It has nationwide, caller ID, voicemail and if you decide to put more minutes on it, the old ones roll over. Really do like it and I can use up the minutes, put it away for awhile and if I like, restart it in the future WITH the same number.

Net10 is the one I got.

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

I have a Tracfone and LOVE it.
Although I do tend to burn right through the minutes.
Next time I add minutes to it my "expire" date will be sometime late next year.

 

[Run-A-Muck Ranch]

Jason and I both have Net10 prepaids. For the most part we like them. Sometimes the reception is a little bad, but then again we live out in the middle of nowhere and don't get good cell service no matter what.
It's usually $30 for 300 minutes. Texting is .50 cents incoming and outgoing (so that's 1/2 a minute charge). You can roll your mintues and end date. You can buy more minutes whenever you need (not sure how the incriments work but I know 300 mins is $30, 1000 mins is $100). You can also get unlimited minutes and texting for $80 a month.
We use to have CellOne...I loved them but refused to be an AT&T customer so after 10+ years of being a CellOne customer we went with prepaid.
The prepaids are a little more spendy I think, but at the same time I don't have a contract, and I don't need all the fancy phone mumbo jumbo stuff either...